


Magnificent Six

by OlrichRakdos



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Dies, Athena/Nisha if you squint pretty hard, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 20:15:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11676303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlrichRakdos/pseuds/OlrichRakdos
Summary: It's the last six shots that love to make a mess, in Nisha's experience.





	Magnificent Six

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's block, and a Monster through the night, have resulted in this monstrosity.  
> Apologies for this, it's probably a mess and a bit odd.

_One shot for each of them. A single bullet with the names of all the motherfuckers who worked with me, who connected with me. A single bullet to end their lives. It’s the last six shots that always seem to make a mess._

The first time she shoots the Kadam, it’s when Nisha’s got the FR4G-TP out in RedBelly’s turf completely cornered and with nowhere to run from the demon within.

“Listen, Nisha, scary cowgirl lady, we-we-we can talk this out, right?” As the machine begs for its life, the lawbringer inhales deeply.

Cocking back the hammer, she levels it at the eye socket of the modified robot. “Nisha’s not home right now, but Miss Kadam can take a message.”

A single blast, and no one complains when Nisha returns to Concordia alone, explaining how RedBelly tore Fragtrap apart in his last moments, unable to respawn but unable to do anything. No one, except for Athena, questions why she didn’t mercy-kill the robot, and she convinces the gladiator that respawning would have made him worse.

Five to go.

_Nothing could make me part with the loaded revolver on my hip, cursed to be used only on six people at a time. That is the way of the Kadam revolver line from Jakobs. Immense power, at a price._

Her second shot, destined for the prim and proper bitch that tagged along from boredom, gets achieved easily enough.

“Aurelia.” The ice-cold mistress looks up into Nisha’s presumably glowing yellow eyes, and her expression moves from reluctant gratitude at being brought back onto her feet to unrivalled horror at staring down the barrel of the Kadam.

“Hell called. They want their cooler and biggest bitch back.” Pulling the trigger, Aurelia collapses, flopping into the lake just as the methane coats it and freezes her inside, preventing her from truly dying.

Nisha swears on the New-U systems that she had no clue where her partner went. It was technically true, which confuses Athena the human lie detector.

Four to go.

_Each Kadam is made for the user, and a handful of their blood is inlaid into the metal. Made to hold only six bullets no matter what, each one that gets loaded in chooses a person from their future to be their killing shot._

The third shot is a lot more difficult, and involves a combination of good timing, a cryo barrel and Wilhelm’s predilection for being at the back.

Nisha whirls about, mid-flight from a jump pad in the Veins of Helios, and the Kadam’s already out, pointed at the cryo barrel beside the jump pad as Wilhelm steps up to it.

Murmuring “robosexual maniac” under her breath, the Kadam fires just as the cyborg steps onto the jump pad, the explosion freezing him solid even as he gets launched out and down.

Slowly falling down, his frozen corpse lodges itself into the steel girders below, and Nisha comforts Athena and Jack by weaving the tale that Wilhelm died protecting the trio remaining. Infected workers with cryo weaponry managed to snipe him just as he was about to follow.

Athena, already emotionally risky after the scientists, and Jack, in the same boat, vow to finish what the six of them together started. The Eye of Helios, they swear, will be shut down, and the Lost Legion shall pay for everything.

Three to go.

_The Kadam, always hungry, seems to change who it wants to kill every time it is reloaded prematurely, for the nature of the beast is that until all six shots are removed in a single clip, it will continue to feed._

Her fourth shot is actually horrifying, even to her, because it’s aimed at the copy of the man she’s starting to love.

As the trio stand in the Eye’s control tower, Timothy, thanks to the vow they made in the Veins, stands right beside Jack, their matching smiles a rare sight.

However, Moxxi, Roland and Lilith, the three who they trusted, decide to fuck with the eye and destroy it instead of just shut it down. The glass cracks, and Tim pushes Jack to the side before he gets yanked into the pane of glass, a network of cracks behind him.

The cracks grow until the glass shatters and the body double gets sucked out into the void instead of Jack, and Nisha blinks away tears to bring up the Kadam, shouting at Athena. “He’s going to die anyways! I’m sorry!”

With a bang, Timothy Lawrence, the man who had been Jack, gains a new hole in his head before he gets atomised by the singularity with no way of coming back.

Athena and Nisha hold each other, through Jack’s ranting and raving, through the loss of their last friend, and through the turmoil of being the two that need to finish the job.

Two to go.

_Once it kills the six it has chosen, only then can the Kadam be used normally and by others. However, those that both hold and keep it often turn aggressive and violent, tortured by the spirits of those they killed. This can happen at any time for the wielder, and even more so for the bonded._

Nisha’s fifth bullet, bound for the final gladiator of their troupe, takes a long time to reach its target.

It’s almost like a mirage that the townsfolk see Nisha, the infamous Sherriff of Lynchwood, thought to have died against the Vault Hunters, stumble through Sanctuary’s fast travel, delirious and sobbing for the prisoner that Lilith had.

The two meet on the edge of town, by Scooter’s garage, and the broken lawbringer tells Athena about the Kadam.

“I killed them. I killed that Fragtrap, Aurelia, Wilhelm, Jack… They’re all screaming at me. This… damned thing is the only thing that’s keeping me alive, but I don’t want it to.” Nisha’s tears spatter the ground and a bit of Athena’s armour.

“Can it end?”

“It can.”

Her shot, unexpected, punches right through the unguarded chestplate, and Athena stumbles backward, falling off the edge of Sanctuary.

Nisha knows that the Kadam killed her even before the body hits the ground. She disappears back through the fast travel network before anyone else finds out.

One to go.

_The targets can include the wielder, or even the bonded person, in the Kadam’s choices. This means every user should be careful. That has not stopped a lot of people before, however.  
Whoever finds this, do not take it. It will be more harm than good._

Finishing her writings, the Sherriff sets the piece of paper down on the bed beside her, inhaling and exhaling as she slowly draws the Kadam for the final time.

Placing the barrel to the side of her temple, she closes her eyes and sees each of the other Hyperion Vault Hunters standing before her.

She feels the tears stream down her cheeks. “I’m sorry for everything. I don’t expect you to forgive me.”

Nisha pulls the trigger, and blood sprays over her pillows, staining her hotel bed in Prosperity Junction.

No more to go.


End file.
